As an attorney specializing
in the art trade and in cultural property, who
practices in both Brussels and Paris, Yves-
Bernard Debie has been well known to this
magazine’s readership for a number of years
now for the depth of his analysis in the many
fi ne articles he has penned for our Art + Law
section. These past months, he has been a
ubiquitous personality in the many debates, both
on radio and television, regarding the question
of the restitution of cultural property to Africa,
making his oppositional point of view known.
The passion and perspicacity we have become
accustomed to hearing expressed through his
vision of European law is as much a result of his
expertise in legal matters as it is of his love for
the history of the art forms themselves. This has
become increasingly clear on the many occasions
we have had the opportunity to converse with
this accomplished jurist, who can recite Victor
Hugo seconds after having elucidated the charms
of the latest acquisition to his collection, doing
so while holding a glass of a fi ne vintage in his
hand.
It was just a matter of time before we would
present him in this part of the magazine and invite
him to present his views in a more personal light.
Tribal Art Magazine: You have made art trade
law your area of specialty and professional
expertise. Did this fi eld interest you in the
course of your university studies, or did your
interest in art lead to it?
Yves-Bernard Debie: My father was the director
of the Anderlecht Académie des Beaux Arts
in Brussels, my grandfather was an artist and
painter, and both were insatiable collectors—so
I fell into art as a young child. There were no
weekends and no vacations without methodical
visits to museums, antique dealers, or auctions.
While as a little boy I wasn’t always so excited
about being dragged around for long afternoons
through the Capitoline Museums in Rome, the
Uffi zi Gallery in Florence, the Louvre, and all
the other museums and exhibitions in Paris
and Brussels, the man I became is grateful for
the experience. We lived art and all its periods
together as a family—everything including
Antiquity, the Haute Epoque, the Renaissance,
Flemish primitivism, romanticism, and the stark
and fascinating breaks of the twentieth century.
124
Yves-Bernard Debie
or, Quotidian Art
Interview by Elena Martínez-Jacquet
TRIBAL people